Known laminated wood products, such as flooring, do not make use of the supply of offcuts generally considered to be waste material. Abendroth, U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,887, describes a flooring laminate having a surface composed of edge grain plain sawn wood veneer strips bonded to each other in parallel stacked relationship so that the edges of the veneer strips are coplanar, providing a floor surface of bonded edge grain veneer strips. According to the Abendroth patent, the edge grain strips are formed of veneer edges. Drobina, U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,362, describes a method of forming decorative panels in which a plurality of edge glued thin wood strips are laid in side-by-side relationship and glued together to form a single composite sheet which is then cut into pieces and glued onto a wooden backing sheet to form a decorative panel.
The patent to Fields, U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,820, describes a softwood/hardwood laminated panel in which strips of softwood and strips of hardwood are alternated so that the edge grain provides the wear surface. The hardwood strips provide long life to the panel, which may be used for a truck deck, and the softwood strips allow objects to slide easily over the deck. Fountain, U.S. Pat. No. 3,041,231, describes a method of laminating rotten grade wood to make laminated boards. Inner boards may have through holes, but outer boards have no rotten portions in the outer surface.
Parmelee, U.S. Pat. No. 301,068, describes a method of laminating wood to form a piano sounding board. Parmelee selects quartersawn wood due to its sensitivity to sound vibrations and its high degree of sound transmission, and laminates the board to provide even density of the wood stock through the sounding board.